Browsing by Subject "Security"

Now showing 1 - 20 of 56

Open Access
The analysis of Turkey's approach to peace operations
(2007) Güngör, Uğur
This dissertation aims at analyzing the motivations that lie at the roots of Turkey’s involvement in peace operations, mostly organized under the leadership of the United Nations in the post-Cold War era. The main contention is that participation in such operations has been an identity-constructing activity in the sense that Turkey has tried to reinforce its eroding western identity in the 1990s through this particular way. This dissertation also discusses alternative motivations behind Turkey’s involvement in peace operations, such as security-related considerations in a neo-realist vein and domestic influence of ethnic and religion pressure groups, but argues that these accounts fail short of offering convincing explanations. Methodologically, the research for this dissertation will be thematic, not theoretical. The purpose of this study is not to make value judgments concerning Turkey’s participation in peace operations, but instead to describe, understand, and explain its role. Based on Turkey’s experiences in peace operations, this dissertation reaches the following conclusions. First, Turkey’s western image has improved. Second, Turkey could transform its security identity and interests in line with the changing security conceptualizations in the West. Third, the modernization process of Turkish armed forces has become much easier following Turkey’s presence in such operations. Fourth, the prospects of Turkey’s membership in the EU have increased following Turkey’s cooperation with EU members in various peace operations in different regions of the world. Fifth, participation in peace operations has contributed to the improvement of Turkey’s relations with the United States which have gradually deteriorated in the postCold War era.
Open Access
Approaches to the root causes of state failure and collapse
(2012) Yumlu, Seda
In the aftermath of the Cold War, failed states have increasingly been viewed as a cause for concern for the international system due to numerous humanitarian and security challenges they created. Since then, a variety of international responses have been attempted and proposed by the international community to address state failure. The ongoing nature of the phenomenon of state failure and security threats they cause prove that state failure is an entrenched problem for the 21st century. This thesis focuses on the analysis of root causes of state failure in the literature and examines different approaches to it. In doing so, it aims to make a comprehensive literature review categorized by historical, global political, individualcentered and critical approaches.
Open Access
Arguing against security communitarianism
(Routledge, 2015-09-02) Bilgin, P.
Anthony Burke’s ‘security cosmopolitanism’ is a fresh and thought-provoking contribution to critical theorizing about security. In this discussion piece, I would like to join Burke’s call for ‘security cosmopolitanism’ by way of arguing against ‘security communitarianism’. I understand the latter as a particular approach that seeks to limit the scope of security to one’s community – be it the ‘nation-state’ or ‘civilization’. I will suggest that arguing against ‘security communitarianism’ requires paying further attention to the postcolonial critique of cosmopolitanism.
Open Access
Ballots for security: women’s electoral rights as an identity shield against material threats
(2024-08) Ergün, Ezgi
Having achieved a certain level of border security with the signing of the Treaty of Lausanne, Türkiye implemented a series of reforms in the early stages of its identity-building process to be included among modern Western states. However, during these reforms, no progress was made regarding women’s rights to vote and be elected. In the discussions held in the Grand National Assembly of Türkiye in 1924, female citizens were deprived of these rights. In 1934, however, women were enthusiastically granted the right to vote and be elected, and decision-makers expressed their wish for the same rights to be extended to women in all modern states as soon as possible. The literature has discussed that the decision to grant women the right to vote and be elected was influenced by the non-material threat perception of Turkish political elites. However, the impact of the material threat perception of these elites has not been analyzed before. In this thesis, the impact of material threat perception on decision-making processes leading to the granting of women’s suffrage was examined using process tracing and content analysis methods. Parliamentary minutes, Atatürk’s parliamentary opening speeches, and two of the most circulated newspapers of the period (Cumhuriyet and Milliyet) were analyzed using content analysis. The research has revealed that since its foundation, Türkiye’s decision-making elites aimed to establish the state’s identity as a Western and civilized state. This goal became particularly significant in the late 1920s due to the material threat perceived from Fascist Italy. The symbolic value of women’s rights gained importance as a means to include Türkiye among Western democratic states’ in-group. For the decision-making elites, who had previously expressed women’s suffrage as a future goal to be achieved when the time was right, December 1934 marked the right moment. This timing was influenced by the increasing uncertainty in the international system, the escalation of armament in other states, and the heightened perception of material threats to Türkiye’s border security. Therefore, in this thesis, I argue that Turkish governmental elites decided to grant women's electoral rights because of its symbolic importance in showcasing Türkiye's new identity as a response to the material threats they perceived.
Open Access
Climate change and security: different perceptions, different approaches
(Uluslararası İlişkiler Konseyi Derneği İktisadi İşletmesi, 2017) Baysal, Başar; Karakaş, Uluç
The concerns about the results of climate change have been increasing as new scientific proofs emerge and people witness its direct effects in environmental catastrophes. There also have been different efforts to frame climate change as a security issue. This study aims to analyze different security approaches to climate change with a particular framework. The framework divides these approaches into two: opponents and proponents of the securitization of climate change. It also analyzes different approaches and logics within both camps. Finally, the study examines and evaluates the emerging literature on the “climatization of security” which focuses on the impacts of climate change on the understanding of security in the discipline of International Relations.
Open Access
Collusion-secure watermarking for sequential data
(2017-09) Yılmaz, Arif
In this work, we address the liability issues that may arise due to unauthorized sharing of personal data. We consider a scenario in which an individual shares his sequential data (such as genomic data or location patterns) with several service providers (SPs). In such a scenario, if his data is shared with other third parties without his consent, the individual wants to determine the service provider that is responsible for this unauthorized sharing. To provide this functionality, we propose a novel optimization-based watermarking scheme for sharing of sequential data. Thus, in the case of an unauthorized sharing of sensitive data, the proposed scheme can nd the source of the leakage by checking the watermark inside the leaked data. In particular, the proposed schemes guarantees with a high probability that (i) the SP that receives the data cannot understand the watermarked data points, (ii) when more than one SPs aggregate their data, they still cannot determine the watermarked data points, (iii) even if the unauthorized sharing involves only a portion of the original data, the corresponding SP can be kept responsible for the leakage, and (iv) the added watermark is compliant with the nature of the corresponding data. That is, if there are inherent correlations in the data, the added watermark still preserves such correlations. Watermarking typically means changing certain parts of the data, and hence it may have negative e ects on data utility. The proposed scheme also minimizes such utility loss while it provides the aforementioned security guarantees. Furthermore, we conduct a case study of the proposed scheme on genomic data and show the security and utility guarantees of the proposed scheme.
Open Access
A Comparative Analysis of the United States’ Trade Frictions with China, Japan and South Korea, 1985-2016
(Çanakkale Onsekiz Mart Üniversitesi Biga İktisadi ve İdari Bilimler Fakültesi, 2017) Bayar, Tuğba; Bayar, M.
This article investigates the interplay between interstate economic and security relations by conducting a comparative analysis of United States’ (U.S.) trade frictions with China, Japan and South Korea. The data demonstrate that the U.S. responded to its East Asian allies during the Cold War with retaliatory measures when they started to make trade surpluses against the U.S. Thus, it could be expected that the U.S. would respond to its mounting trade deficit against China after 2001 even more decisively, since it has had territorial disputes with this country. However, our analysis indicates that the U.S. followed a more docile approach with China until its 2008 economic crisis. This puzzle is explained by a number of economic and political factors. Our analysis concludes with insights for the coordination of trade and security policies at the governmental level and for the World Trade Organization’s dispute settlement mechanism.
Open Access
Cryptographic solutions for credibility and liability issues of genomic data
(Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, 2019) Ayday, E.; Tang, Q.; Yilmaz, A.
In this work, we consider a scenario that includes an individual sharing his genomic data (or results obtained from his genomic data) with a service provider. In this scenario, (i) the service provider wants to make sure that received genomic data (or results) in fact belongs to the corresponding individual (and computed correctly), (ii) the individual wants to provide a digital consent along with his data specifying whether the service provider is allowed to further share his data, and (iii) if his data is shared without his consent, the individual wants to determine the service provider that is responsible for this leakage. We propose two schemes based on homomorphic signature and aggregate signature that links the information about the legitimacy of the data to the consent and the phenotype of the individual. Thus, to verify the data, each party also needs to use the correct consent and phenotype of the individual who owns the data.
Open Access
A demonstration of privacy-preserving aggregate queries for optimal location selection
(IEEE, 2018) Eryonucu, Cihan; Ayday, Erman; Zeydan, E.
In recent years, service providers, such as mobile operators providing wireless services, collected location data in enormous extent with the increase of the usages of mobile phones. Vertical businesses, such as banks, may want to use this location information for their own scenarios. However, service providers cannot directly provide these private data to the vertical businesses because of the privacy and legal issues. In this demo, we show how privacy preserving solutions can be utilized using such location-based queries without revealing each organization's sensitive data. In our demonstration, we used partially homomorphic cryptosystem in our protocols and showed practicality and feasibility of our proposed solution.
Open Access
Dialogue of civilisations: A critical security studies perspective
(T.C. Dışişleri Bakanlığı Stratejik Araştırmalar Merkezi, 2014) Bilgin, Pınar
Civilisational dialogue initiatives are currently considered our best chance to prevent a potential clash between states belonging to different civilisations. Critical approaches to security are concerned with insecurities as experienced by multiple referents, including individuals, social groups, states and the global environment. This article argues that students of critical security studies and proponents of civilisational dialogue initiatives potentially have something to talk about. In presenting a two-step critique of civilisational dialogue initiatives, this article explores such potential, which could allow for further dialogue with a view to addressing insecurities of multiple security referents.
Open Access
Dünya düzenleri ve güvenlik: Ulus-devlet güvenlik anlayışı aşılıyor mu?
(Millî Savunma Üniversitesi Atatürk Stratejik Araştırmalar Enstitüsü, 2007) Oğuzlu, H. Tarık
Bu yazı farklı dünya düzenleri ile güvenlik algılamaları arasındaki ilişkileri analiz etmektedir. Bunu yaparken iki farklı dünya düzenini incelemektedir. Bunlar sırası ile ulus-devlet düzeni ile ulus-devlet ötesi düzendir. Her bir sistemin karakteristik özelliklerine göre, güvenlik kavramının tanımlanışı değişmektedir. Yazı ağırlıklı olarak ulus-devlet ötesi sistemi tartışmakta ve de şu temel argümanı öne sürmektedir. Ulus-devlet düzeninin devleti esas alan güvenlik anlayışı her ne kadar ulus-devlet ötesi düzenin bireyi esas alan anlayışı tarafından sorgulanıyor olsa da, günümüzde hala hakim olan anlayış birincisidir. Bunu gösterirken yazı günümüz sisteminin iki başat aktörü olan Amerika Birleşik Devletleri ile Avrupa Birliği’nin güvenlik algılamalarının karşılıklı bir mukayesesini yapmaktadır. Öne sürülen temel görüş şudur. Amerika Birleşik Devletleri’nin güvenlik anlayışı daha çok ulus-devlet düzeninin güvenlik anlayışına yakınken, AB’ninki ulus-devlet ötesi düzenin güvenlik anlayışına yakındır. Bir diğer argüman ise 11 Eylül sonrası gelişmelerin hem küresel hem de AB ölçeğinde ulus-devlet ötesi güvenlik anlayışının yerleşmesini kolaylaştırmadığıdır.
Open Access
Entropy service for secure real-time missioncritical communications
(John Wiley and Sons, Ltd, 2022-08-05) Turk, Y.; Tasbag, Yaman Yagiz; Zeydan, E.
Real Time Mission Critical Communication (RTMCC) in emergency situations can include real-time video and audio calls between peers and first responders all occurring simultaneously. RTMCC also requires secure end-to-end (E2E) group communication (GC) sessions against potential security threats during such incidents. In this paper, we explore all aspects of the possible methods that are suitable for a software implementation of for session key change during GC in E2E encryption of RTMCC. Later, we introduce our Entropy Service concept, which can be very effective in secure E2E RTMCC sessions. The proposed method ensures E2E security in real-time communication systems while allowing very fast session key change for clients involved in an RTMCC session with a computational complexity of 𝒪(1). Our experimental results show that the proposed Entropy Service can reduce total time by 99.6% and 99.2%, the idle time by 99.4% and 98.99%, and the number of messages by 51.4% and 35.33% compared to the key refreshing and hash methods, respectively, when the number of users in the system increases to 45. These results show that both communication and computation complexity are significantly reduced with the proposed RTMCC session key change.
Open Access
The Europeanization of Turkish security culture : a reality or myth?
(2010) Bulut, Serkan
Turkish journey to Europe has a history longer than 40 years however especially in the last 10 years more and more scholars started to study “Europeanization of Turkey” especially the foreign policy dimension. This thesis aims at contributing the growing Europeanization literature by looking at the degree of Europeanization in Turkish Security Culture. The traditional realpolitik nature of Turkish Security Culture has shown signs of change in the last decade especially in terms of style and the process dimensions and more European means are utilized by Turkish policy makers. This new situation creates a critical question for anyone interested in Turkish politics: do those changes observed in Turkish Security Culture mean a European transformation has taken place? After explain and comparing the European and Realpolitik Security cultures, this thesis shows that Turkish Security Culture has undergone a change in terms of the style security matters are handles and in terms of processes involved, yet the ultimate goals Turkey pursuing are still defined in terms of realpolitik mindset. True Europeanization requires pursuit of European ends with European means and against this background, Turkish Security Culture, which desires to achieve realpolitik ends but wits European means, does not fit in to the definition of European Security Culture.
Open Access
Free riding in peer-to-peer networks
(Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, 2009) Karakaya, M.; Korpeoglu, I.; Ulusoy, Özgür
Free riding in peer-to-peer (P2P) networks poses a serious threat to their proper operation. Here, the authors present a variety of approaches developed to overcome this problem. They introduce several unique aspects of P2P networks and discuss free riding's effects on P2P services. They categorize proposed solutions and describe each category's important features and implementation issues together with some sample solutions. They also discuss open issues, including common attacks and security considerations. © 2009 IEEE.
Open Access
Gold and gold jewelry : exploration of consumer practices
(2003) Ertimur, Burçak
This thesis explores consumers’ practices and experiences in relation to consumption of gold and gold jewelry. It focuses on the underlying motivations of consumers, the uses of gold and gold jewelry, and examines the practices and meanings that emerge as a result of these uses. Data were collected through qualitative research methods. The participants include twenty-four female consumers and four industry representatives. Age, income, and use of gold jewelry/coin constitute the main criteria in selection of the consumers. The findings indicate three main uses for gold and gold jewelry: Gift-giving, ornamentation, and investment. Both utilitarian and symbolic motives are identified in giving gold jewelry/coins as a gift. Whereas previous research focuses on the symbolic aspects of the gift, the findings suggest that there are utilitarian aspects as well. The practices and experiences related to the use as ornamentation illustrate the relation of gold jewelry to fashion, highlight the item’s significance for sense of self, and reveal patterns of complementarity with the product category of clothing. The exploration of the use of investment uncovers the dual function of gold jewelry, and indicates the interaction between ornamentation and investment. The study concludes with a discussion of the contributions, limitations, and implications for future research on the topic.
Open Access
The Greek Muslim migration : rethinking the role of security and nationalism within the 1923 compulsory exchange of populations between Greece and Turkey
(2004) Kalayoğlu, Sinan
In my Masters Thesis, I examine the 1923 Compulsory Population Exchange between Greece and Turkey (CEOPBGT). Endorsed at a convention in Lausanne, Switzerland, the forced transfer of over one million Anatolian Greek Christians from Turkey to Greece, and of roughly 400,000 Greek Muslims from Greece to Turkey, occurred during a period when Turkey and Greece were actively pursuing nation-building projects. In my theory, I inform about the downside of state-centric security rhetoric and ethnonationalism associated with population expulsion. In my case study, I specifically address the Lausanne Convention’s role in "nationalizing" identity and defining who belongs and who does not in nationally particularistic ways. My investigation seeks to illustrate that the national territorial narrative produced by the CEOPBGT was in discord with how transferees comprehended their own sense of community and place in the world. To this end, I provide evidence such as stories of the Greek Muslim migration to show how displacement distorts, challenges and negotiates a migrant’s sense of identity and security. Ultimately, I hope that my thesis may add a unique perspective to the current literature seeking to understand sources of the politicized conflict between Greece and Turkey, as well as offering general insight into the International Relations discipline regarding the phenomenon of forced population transfer.
Open Access
How can a gender-aware analysis contribute to our understanding of security?
(2006) Şahin, Hande
This thesis discusses the possible contribution of a gender-aware analysis to our understanding of security. Within the discipline of International Relations, there is a great diversity in the range of perspectives on analyzing security. They have different answers to what is being secured, what is being secured against and who provides for security. In Security Studies, empirically based positivist perspectives, explicitly or implicitly specify what the referent of their studies is. It can be the system, state, society, and individuals. On the other hand, in feminist theory, it is all about rethinking concepts, rethinking models. It may appear that gender can have little to contribute to the study of security. However, this is not the case. The gender awareness in the study of security challenges the basic understanding of security. Structures and practices that are taken as given by traditional approaches within a patriarchal discourse serve only to obscure the inequalities and insecurities. In this thesis, through adding gender as a category of analysis, it is attempted to illustrate the gendered constructions of conflict, militarism and militarisation. Without making invisible visible, our understanding of security can only be partial.
Open Access
Illiberal security practices of liberal states in the post 9/11 era : Aberystwyth & Paris School compared
(2012) Türe, Tuğçe
The relationship between security and liberty is an issue that has always attracted scholarly attention. After the 9/11 terrorist attacks, this issue received a new lease of life in the literature. This is because some liberal states have increasingly adopted security practices that are in conflict with liberal principles. These illiberal practices of liberal states have had implications for non-state referents in the context of the war on terror. This thesis examines the question of what the implications of the illiberal security practices of liberal states are for referents other than states in the context of the war on terror. While examining this question, this thesis adopts a critical perspective by bringing in the perspectives of the Aberystwyth School and the Paris School in a comparative manner. It then, examines this question through a case study on the UK as a liberal state by comparing the perspectives of the Aberystwyth and Paris Schools. In doing so, it offers the argument that seeing liberty and security as separate values that are in conflict with each other results in further insecurity for non-state referents in the context of the war on terror. In this way, this thesis emphasizes the need for going beyond the balance argument of the relationship between liberty and security.
Open Access
An inference attack on genomic data using kinship, complex correlations, and phenotype information
(IEEE, 2018) Deznabi, Iman; Mobayen, Mohammad; Jafari, Nazanin; Taştan, Öznur; Ayday, Erman
Abstract—Individuals (and their family members) share (partial) genomic data on public platforms. However, using special characteristics of genomic data, background knowledge that can be obtained from the Web, and family relationship between the individuals, it is possible to infer the hidden parts of shared (and unshared) genomes. Existing work in this field considers simple correlations in the genome (as well as Mendel’s law and partial genomes of a victim and his family members). In this paper, we improve the existing work on inference attacks on genomic privacy. We mainly consider complex correlations in the genome by using an observable Markov model and recombination model between the haplotypes. We also utilize the phenotype information about the victims. We propose an efficient message passing algorithm to consider all aforementioned background information for the inference. We show that the proposed framework improves inference with significantly less information compared to existing work.
Open Access
Inference attacks against kin genomic privacy
(Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc., 2017) Ayday, E.; Humbert M.
Genomic data poses serious interdependent risks: your data might also leak information about your family members' data. Methods attackers use to infer genomic information, as well as recent proposals for enhancing genomic privacy, are discussed. © 2003-2012 IEEE.